Karzai applauds Canada for staying in Afghanistan

LISBON, Portugal – Afghanistan is “very grateful” to Canada for
agreeing to provide 1,000 military trainers after its combat mission ends next
year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday.

He made the comment at a news conference after Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
U.S. President Barack Obama and fellow NATO leaders adopted a transition plan
to wrap up international combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014,
but also to establish a long-term partnership to bolster that country’s
security for years to come.

“Canada has been at the forefront of assistance to Afghanistan from the
very beginning,” Karzai said. “The Afghan people are extremely grateful for
the Canadian contribution to the well-being of the Afghan people.

“Canada’s decision to continue to assist Afghanistan after they have ended
their military mission is welcome and . . . we are very grateful for that.”

As Karzai praised Canada, other countries stepped up with offers to provide
military forces to train Afghan soldiers and police. The aim is to transfer
control of security operations to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The United Kingdom offered 320 members of its armed forces for training and
Italy offered 200, for example. NATO will hold a training force “generating”
conference with Canada and other countries in Belgium in the coming weeks to
tailor training specialties with needs in Afghanistan.

Rasmussen also expressed appreciation for the Canadian training plan,
calling it part of a “crucial” element of the NATO process and an
“outstanding example” for other allies.

NATO would not have been able to proceed with the transition plan if Canada
had not agreed to fill a shortage of 900 trainers in its target training force
of 2,800 personnel, a NATO official said.

Under the transition plan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force of about 130,000 troops from nearly 50 countries is expected to decline
by slightly less than half after 2014.

Afghan military forces total about 160,000 but will be built up even further,
Rasmussen said.

“We will not leave behind a security vacuum that will create instability in
the region,” he pledged.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said his organization will
continue to play its part on the civilian end of Afghanistan’s quest for
control over its own affairs.

“There can be no purely military solution,” he said.

As the session on Afghanistan opened, before Karzai and Rasmussen signed the
partnership agreement, Rasmussen emphasized that NATO’s commitment is long-term,
although control will be turned over to Afghanistan.

“If the enemies of Afghanistan have the idea that they can just wait it out
until we leave, they have the wrong idea,” he said. “We will stay as long as
it takes to finish our job.”

Canada’s decade-long combat operation in Afghanistan is slated to end in
July 2011, with the withdrawal of 2,800 combat troops by the end of that year.

The combat mission, centered in Kandahar since 2006, will be replaced by a
Kabul-based force of about 1,000 Armed Forces personnel to train the Afghan
National Army “behind the wire” until March 2014.

“We will launch the process by which the Afghan government will take
leadership for security throughout the country, district by district, province
by province,” Rasmussen said.

“The direction, starting today, is clear: towards Afghan leadership, and
Afghan ownership. That is the vision President Karzai has set out. It is a
vision we share, and we will make it a reality, starting early next year.

“The decisions we will take here today mark a decisive step forward towards
the goal we all share: to see Afghanistan stand on its own feet and provide for
its own security.”